The Scoggins Report: November 2011 Roundup
The Scoggins Report is a compilation of spec sales and trends in the industry. Archive editions of The Scoggins Report can be found at The Business of Show Institute and on www.thewrap.com. Details on every person, project, and company covered by the Report can also be found at www.ItsontheGrid.com. The Report is reprinted at Scriptmag.com by permission of the authors.
Spec Market Roundup for November 2011
Good thing we held our horses a couple of weeks ago and waited to do a year-end analysis: Despite the Thanksgiving holiday, the second half of November was as strong as the first, bringing November 2011’s total sales to more than double 2010’s. Not unlike 2011’s numbers overall, as we’ve been saying for a couple of months now.
Here are our favorite highlights from last month:
- Universal picked up two specs and Fox bought one in November, tying the two studios with Columbia for total specs in 2011 (seven each). Warner Bros. uncharacteristically stayed on the sidelines, perhaps conserving cash for this week’s Seth Grahame-Smith project and their annual contribution to Dan Fogelman’s retirement fund.
- H2F’s Chris Fenton had a great month: His two spec sales brought his yearly total to five so far, tied for second place with Benderspink. New Wave’s dynamic duo Josh Adler and Mike Goldberg extended their lead in the managers’ race with an additional sale, bringing their 2011 total to nine.
November’s raw numbers and weekly breakdowns are below, along with the details on each sale.
1 This number is a tally of every script that sold in November.
2 This percentage only counts scripts that came out and sold in November.
Weekly Activity Breakdown
Week of October 31:
- 8 scripts hit the tracking boards, none of which sold
- 1 additional sales were reported (“Self/Less,” which went out in September)
NOTE: Three of this week’s 8 new specs went out on the 31st, so they’re not included in the monthly numbers above
Week of November 7:
- 6 projects hit the boards, one of which sold (“The DUFF”)
- 3 additional sales were reported (“Autobahn,” “Dreamt” and “Leonardo,” which originally went out in May 2010)
Week of November 14:
- 10 scripts hit the boards, none of which sold
- 1 additional sale was reported (“In The Blood,” which originally went out in June 2010)
Week of November 21 (Thanksgiving):
- No new scripts went to market (surprise)
- 1 sale was reported (“Untitled Bryan Bertino Project”)
Week of November 28:
- 5 scripts have hit the boards as of this writing, none of which have yet sold
- 2 additional sales have been reported (“Guy’s Night,” which went out in July, and “Narco Sub”)
Genre Breakdown:
Spec Sales (alphabetical by title)
Writer: Scott Frazier (“The Numbers Station”)
Reps: WME (Daniel Cohan, Mike Esola) and H2F (Chris Fenton)
Buyer: Between the Eyes
Genre: Action
Writer: Bryan Bertino (“The Strangers”)
Reps: UTA
Buyer: Universal
Genre: Thriller
Attachments: Jason Blum will produce through his Blumhouse Productions with Unbroken Pictures’ Adrienne Biddle and Marc Platt Productions’ Marc Platt and Adam Siegel.
Writer: Josh Cagan (“Bandslam”)
Reps: WME (Rich Cook) and H2F (Chris Fenton)
Buyer: CBS Films
Genre: Comedy
Attachments: McG will produce and Mary Viola will executive produce through Wonderland Sound & Vision. Vast Entertainment’s Lane Shefter Bishop will also produce.
Notes: Project is based on Kody Keplinger’s YA novel of the same name. McG has been developing the project since June 2010.
Writer: Andrew Alexander
Reps: Original Artists (Jordan Bayer, Matt Leipzig, Chris Sablan)
Buyer: Safady Entertainment
Genre: Psychological thriller
Attachments: Safady’s Craig Chapman, Todd Moyer, Gary Safady will produce.
Writer: Christopher Baldi
Reps: CAA (Bill Zotti) and New Wave (Josh Adler, Mike Goldberg)
Buyer: Millennium Films
Genre: Comedy
Attachments: Millennium’s Trevor Short and Avi Lerner will exec produce with Danny Dimbort, Adler and Goldberg. Matt Bass and Jim Valdez will produce.
Notes: Script hit the market in July.
Writers: James Johnston & Bennett Yellin
Reps: Magnet Management (Jennie Frankel)
Buyer: Cargo Entertainment
Genre: Thriller
Attachments: John Stockwell is attached to direct. Cargo’s Marina Grasic, Jan Korbelin and Mark Lindsay will produce with Verso Entertainment’s Baron Davis and Cash Warren as well as The Movie Package Company’s Ray Mansfield and Shaun Redick.
Notes: Script originally went out in June 2010.
Writer: Jonny Kurzman
Reps: Circle of Confusion (Ashley Berns)
Buyer: Universal
Genre: Action
Attachments: Charles and Larry Gordon and Philip Westgren will produce through Lawrence Gordon Productions.
Notes: Peter Cramer will oversee for the studio. Project originally hit the market in May 2010.
Writer: David Guggenheim (“Safe House”)
Reps: APA (David Boxerbaum) and Madhouse Entertainment (Adam Kolbrenner)
Buyer: Fox
Genre: Thriller
Attachments: Tony Scott is attached to direct and produce through Scott Free. Simon Kinberg’s Genre Films will also produce.
Notes: Steve Asbell will oversee for the studio, Aditya Sood will oversee for Genre Films and Michael Costigan and Elishia Holmes will oversee for Scott Free.
Writers: Alex & David Pastor (“Carriers”)
Reps: CAA (Stuart Manashil) and Kaplan/Perrone (Alex Lerner)
Buyer: Endgame Entertainment
Genre: Unknown
Notes: Script hit the market in September.
About The Scoggins Report:
The Scoggins Report is a terribly unscientific analysis of the feature film development business based on information assembled from a variety of public and non-public sources. The numbers in the reports are by no means official statistics. Archive editions of The Scoggins Report can be found at The Business of Show Institute (http://bit.ly/2HRZ67) and in their beautiful new home on www.thewrap.com.
Details on every person, project and company covered by the Report can also be found at www.ItsontheGrid.com, the only place mere mortals can find listings of Hollywood’s active open writing and directing assignments, not to mention comprehensive spec market data and active film development information.
Top screenwriting and film publication, founded in 1989, published by Active Interest Media. Twitter: @scriptmag
